Hassan's law: If you don't like it, ignore it

EDITORIAL

Gov. Maggie Hassan seems to be fitting right in with the Obama First Rule of Governance: If the law doesn't allow it, ignore the law.

That clearly is the case with the jumbled mess that is Obamacare. Before he flew off to another golfing vacation on Martha's Vineyard, the President explained why he was ignoring the law as to when businesses would come under it. That was supposed to happen soon, but the rules and regulations are both confusing and bad for business. So Obama just decided to ignore the law and put things off for a year.

The President said that in a "normal political environment" he would have called the Speaker of the House and found a way to "tweak" the law. But, he said, the Republicans don't like Obamacare, so he just had to act on his own.

This is not only scary, it is bogus. The House had already passed the "Authority for Mandate Delay Act," which, if the Senate went along, would give Obama the legal authority to do what he instead did by himself.

Here in New Hampshire, there is a law requiring that a Health Care Reform Oversight Committee set all policies dealing with Obamacare.

But when the committee exercised its authority, Gov. Hassan let the state insurance commissioner ignore the committee and the law.

The committee had rejected a proposal for the state to spend millions of federal taxpayer dollars on an elaborate and invasive PR campaign for Obamacare. It would include government-hired flunkies going door-to-door in some cases to explain how great Obamacare will be.

Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny says something called the New Hampshire Health Plan, which he described as a quasi-government body that operates the state's high risk pool, could accept the money.

Gov. Hassan thinks that's great. Her spokesman said it was the Republican legislators' fault anyway, because they had blocked the Insurance Department from getting the money.

Well, yes, that is what the duly-authorized committee, working under the law, did.

State Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, who is a member of the Health Care Reform Advisory Committee, agrees that the Hassan-blessed move runs afoul of the law.

And if Gov. Hassan and President Obama are willing to ignore the law when the law doesn't suit them, what other things have they got in mind?